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Say Goodbye to Mobile Games

By Xiaoxue

My name is Xiaoxue and this year, I am 12. Ever since the day I began to play mobile games, my daily routine had been upset and every day, I led a busy life. Only after I received God’s gospel and read the words uttered by God and the brothers’ and sisters’ experience articles on quitting online gaming did I came to know that playing game is one of Satan’s methods of afflicting us, and in the end, I thoroughly got rid of mobile games by relying on God.

I began to play games before I accepted God’s work. One time, I saw that my elder sister was enjoying playing mobile games. Out of curiosity, I took my cue from her and downloaded some Mini games to my phone to play. But who would have thought that I was addicted to playing these games as soon as I started to play them. Since then, my phone was never far away from my fingers. As a result of playing games, I couldn’t keep regular hours in life or study. In the past, every day after returning home from school, I would first do my homework. However, since I started to play games, I was absorbed in playing them after school. Often, not until midnight did I remember that I had homework to do. Every time this happened, I would be very worried and think to myself: It’s so late, when will I be able to finish so much homework? But if I cannot finish it, I will certainly be scolded by my teachers. With this in mind, I immediately started to do my homework. However, before long, I became too sleepy and tired to continue with my homework. I thought to myself: I might as well rise early in the morning and get on with it. But because I got to bed so late, I got up late, and then I had to do my homework hastily. When I finally finished it, it was time for me to go to school. Having no time to eat breakfast, I took the snack that my grandmother had fixed and had it as I trotted off to school. I did these things in such a hurry almost every day.

In November 2016, I accepted God’s gospel and became a little Christian in the house of God. When I had free time, apart from reading God’s words with my grandmother, I would play mobile games uncontrollably. Seeing this, my grandmother was afraid that I might become decadent and thus asked me to uninstall these games. But I was really reluctant to do as she said because these games were really fun, especially “Happy Cancellation”, which was my favorite game. I had got to such a high level and was very unwilling to uninstall it, and I just wanted to carry on playing it. Should I uninstall it or not? I hesitated for a long time and finally, I decided to uninstall these games on my phone. But later when I felt tempted to play mobile games, I would again download some to my phone, and then I uninstalled it after playing for a period of time. Just like this, I downloaded games and uninstalled them over and over again. I felt that I really could not give up mobile games. As soon as I arrived home and saw my phone, I could not help picking up my phone and playing games. Gradually, I got to the point where I was often so deep in playing games that I forgot to eat.

At a gathering, I told the aunt responsible for watering me about the matter of my playing games. Then she let me read an article written by a brother believing in God. In this article, he wrote about how he was afflicted by Satan because of indulging in gaming before he believed in God, and about the facts that because of playing games, some people fell ill, some children became unbalanced, and some even wound up dead…. Reading these things, I began to feel afraid. I had never thought that playing games was such a dangerous thing that some people even played themselves to death. At the end of this article, this brother also wrote that after receiving God’s gospel, he completely quit online gaming by depending on God’s words. I thought to myself: “I’m also a believer in God. Since he could rely on God to get rid of gaming, I should also rely on God and ask Him to guide me to quit mobile games.” Then, I read the following passage of God’s word, “Playing games is like taking a kind of drug. Once someone starts to play games, once they enter into them, then it becomes hard to get back out and hard to quit. So regardless of whether it is young people or older people, once they catch this bad habit, it becomes difficult to give it up. Some parents try to keep a close eye on their children but they can’t always be watching them. They may not play games during the day, but when their parents go to bed at night, they furtively turn the computer on, and play games all night long” (“Young People Should See Through the Evil Trends of the World” in Records of Christ’s Talks). I am such a kid as God’s words have described: Though my grandmother kept her eye on me all day and often criticized me for my playing games, I still could not control myself and even frequently played them until midnight and forgot to do my homework. After reading these God’s words, I was aware that I should give up playing games, or else the consequences would be very serious, so I decided to uninstall all the games on my phone after I returned home from the gathering.

At this moment, the aunt asked me, “Xiaoxue, what go through your mind after you finished reading this article? Please share with us.” I hastened to answer, “Aunt, never, never again will I play mobile games, nor will I download games to play. In the past, I just felt playing games was fun, but now, I know playing games is so harmful that I decide to give it up.” Then, she asked me again, “If you are again tempted to play games, what should you do?” The question did stop me in my tracks because I merely had the determination to uninstall games and yet was still vague about what to do if I again felt like playing games. So, I could only look at her in confusion. Seeing my expression, the aunt smiled and said, “Xiaoxue, through reading God’s words, we understand that playing games is actually one of Satan’s methods of afflicting and swallowing us. It takes advantage of games to cause us to become obsessed, thus controlling us and leading us by the nose; in the end, it causes us to stray away from God and once again to return to its side. So, you should see through Satan’s scheme. In the future, when wanting to play games again, if you don’t want to be controlled by it, you should hasten to call out to God and ask Him to give you a heart of forsaking flesh. God is at our side. When you encounter difficulties, as long as you call out to Him, He will help you. Since we don’t have the strength to overcome sin on our own, we should pray to and rely on God, and only that way can we get rid of the temptation of games. …” After listening to her fellowship, I became confident and nodded violently and then said to her, “Aunt, I’m bound to rely on God to get rid of mobile games.”

After going back home, I uninstalled all the games on my phone. At the moment I did this, I didn’t feel as terrible as before; instead, I felt very glad and considered that I would never again be afflicted by Satan and God would like my doing so. However, because my understanding of the truth was too shallow, one day, when I saw the phone on the table, I was once again itching to play games, thinking: Will it matter if I play them just once? I have gotten to a high level last time. The higher level I get to, the more fun I will have in playing them. I’ll just play one more time. As I thought about it, I reached for the phone. At this point, I was reminded of what the aunt had fellowshiped with me, “When you want to play games, you should hasten to cry out to God, ask Him for His protection and presence.” With that, I quickly pulled back my hand and called out to God in my heart, “O God! May You protect me and be with me, so that I can get rid of the temptation of mobile games. Although I know playing games is wrong, I don’t have the strength to overcome sin. May You give me faith and perseverance, and lead me to break my addiction to mobile games. Amen!” After prayer, I consciously kept away from the phone. At this moment, my grandmother stepped out of the kitchen after having prepared the meal, and she asked me, “Do you think about playing mobile games again?” I nodded and responded, a little embarrassed, “Yes!” She said, “Xiaoxue, you can’t be fooled by Satan again. Satan uses these games to bind you, causing you to lose yourself in them all day long, to the point where you are not in the mood to read God’s word or to study. If you play games, you would be tricked by Satan. You have made a resolution before God to stop playing games. If you are unable to keep your word, God won’t like you. Since you have believed in God today, you ought to be a good child who heeds God’s word.”

After listening to my grandmother’s words, I thought of a passage of God’s words which I read during a gathering, “God works on man and man is cherished in both God’s attitude and His heart. On the contrary, does Satan cherish man? It does not cherish man. What does it want with man? It wants to harm man, all it thinks about is harming man. Isn’t that right? So when it is mulling over harming man, does it do so in a pressing state of mind? (Yes.) So when it comes to Satan’s work on man, here I have two words that can amply describe the malicious and evil nature of Satan, that can truly allow you to know the hatefulness of Satan: In Satan’s approach to man, it always wants to forcefully “occupy” and “attach” itself to each of them so that it can get to the point where it is completely in control of man, harming man, so that it can achieve this objective and wild ambition. What does “forcefully occupy” mean? Does it happen with your consent, or without your consent? Does it happen with your knowing, or without your knowing? It is completely without your knowing! In situations where you are unaware, possibly when it has not said anything or possibly when it has not done anything, when there is no premise, no context, there it is around you, surrounding you. It looks for an opportunity to exploit, then it forcefully occupies you, attaches itself to you, achieving its objective of being completely in control of you and harming you. This is a most typical intention and behavior in Satan’s fight against God for mankind” (“God Himself, the Unique IV”). At that time, I had some awareness of the reason why when I saw mobile phone, I would always be tempted to play games, even deceived myself that I would just play them one more time. As it turned out, Satan was around me looking for an opportunity to exploit, with the purpose of harming and controlling me, so that I would distance myself utterly from God and be swallowed by it. There are really many malicious means of Satan harming people, and it harms people in a pressing state of mind. At the thought of this, I became more confident of leaving mobile games far behind.

Afterward, I found that, since I stopped playing games, I had not been busy as before. In the past, it seemed as if I was running against time every day. I always felt that I was pressed for time as I was occupied with doing my homework and playing games. As a result, I could not eat regularly and had little time to read God’s word with my grandmother. Now, every day I finish my homework on time and sleep regularly. And I no longer need to get up early to do my homework and eat on my way to school. What’s more, I have more time to read God’s words with my grandmother, and have resumed normal life and regular study. After quitting mobile games, I indeed felt great relieved. I felt that coming before God was so good and only God could protect me from Satan’s affliction.

As I thought about this, I could not help offering up a prayer to God, “O God! I’m thankful that You guided me out of the vortex of mobile games and rescued me from their afflictions. Now I’m still too young. There are many things I don’t understand and sometimes I don’t know what I should do to be right. May You guide me and protect me at my side all the time, so that I could stand guard against the tricks of Satan. In the following days, I’ll be willing to come into Your presence more, read Your words, understand more of the truth, and believe in and follow You properly. All the glory goes to God!”

Dear brothers and sisters, if you have any understanding or enlightenment from God,you’re welcome to share with us via: